Posted by MikeNaughton - Fri, Dec 9, 2011, 9:14 P

Free cell phones

"There are a wide range of beliefs in the Democratic Party as there are in the Republican Party. "

Really? Where? Not in the candidates running for President. Not in the members of the House of Representatives, or the Senators. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that if were _is_ a wide range of beliefs, none of them feel comfortable talking about it (and what good is a belief if you aren't willing to talk about it? is it really a belief?).

I think that a lot of people who consider themselves to be Republicans or Democrats are actually Independents, because they mostly don't agree with the party they say they're a member of. And I'd agree that there is a wide range of beliefs among Independents. But Republicans and Democrats? Not so much.

Which is one reason I'd like to see us move towards a parliamentary system of government, where it would be practical to have lots of different parties and people might have the choice of one they actually agreed with. In our current system, if you want to get anywhere past the very local level, you have to pick one of the big two, and then you have to toe the party line more often than not. Kind of dysfunctional, IMHO ...